Last night was the press screening of Lions for Lambs which co-premiers here tonight after its opening night at the London Film Festival yesterday.

There has already been a lot of controversy surrounding the latest in over 20 films currently being made or released relating to the War-on-Terror, and no doubt there will be more. Debate can never be a bad thing, especially for the film’s stars, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford - it is Oscar season after all. So, with that in mind, I think it’s only fair I get to give my two-pennies-worth.

The basic storyline parallels three main plots:

An interview between hard-headed journalist Janine Roth (Meryl Streep) and ambitious Senator Jasper Irving (Tom Cruise),

A conversation between Professor Stephen Malley (Robert Redford) and brilliant young student Todd (Andrew Garfield),

And two young men Ernest (Michael Peña) and Arian (Derek Luke) stranded on a mountain in Afghanistan.

Despite Redford’s distinguished career as an actor and director of political films and excellent performances from Streep and newcomer Garfield in particular, this eagerly awaited film is facile and tepid. The dialogue is intelligent but forced, like the West Wing with a hangover, and the overall storyline falls back on a series of stereotypes:

Soldiers are high-minded idealists willing to sacrifice themselves to a cause,
Journalists are all bowed under the corporate yoke,
Young people are apathetic and lazy, and
Politicians remain sleazy and self-interested.

Speaking in the press meeting Redford said he saw the role of cinema as delivering “important ideas in a way that is compelling… I saw the political situation in my country in a very entertaining way.’’

This film is neither particularly entertaining nor does it manage to deliver any important ideas with credibility - the characters are one dimensional and the basic message, which seems to be that fighting a war is ultimately better than talking about it, is genuinely disturbing.

After all the waiting this is not only a huge disappointment, but another piece of simplistic, stereotyped rubbish, dangerous because it masquerades as thought-provoking.

Also premiering this evening will be the directing debut from Robert Davi, The Dukes, featuring The Sopranos’ Peter Bogdanovich and Elya Baskin, as well as the press screening of And the Spring Comes from Chang Wei Gu, which promises to be fantastic.

On other aspects of the festival, today I finally had the chance to visit the Prospects: Modern Art from India exhibition. I personally have a love affair with India and have been very excited about the Focus India sections of the festival. I must be, I’m going to a press screening of Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking tomorrow at 8.30 in the morning.

The exhibition promised to pay homage to the seductiveness of India for the Western imagination, and was composed of several dark rooms divided by draped muslin with spotlights on the artwork.

There were a few interesting pieces, particularly a wonderful collection of close-ups on rusty metal that gave the effect of the Indian landscape, but overall I felt they could have done a bit more with it.

Still, it’s great they are trying to expand to include more Asian cinema in the festival, and there is also a selection of music and poetry readings which add diversity to the theme.